Steamboat Arabia Museum

We spent a very interesting few hours at the Steamboat Arabia Museum in downtown Kansas City MO yesterday.  The Arabia was a steamboat that plyed the Missouri River and was sunk with a full cargo in 1856.  132 years later the remains were found in a cornfield near the current river.   Read on…… 

Steamboat sinkings were not uncommon in the 19^th century along the Missouri River.  Almost 200 boats were lost on the Missouri River between St. Louis and Kansas City.  All sank between the year 1830 and 1895.  The steamboat Arabia was one such boat. 

What makes the Arabia almost unique is that it is one of only two early riverboats found with its cargo mostly intact.

Built in 1853 on the banks of the Monongahela River in Brownsville, PA, about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, she was 171 feet in length and had a width of 29 feet, capable of carrying a full 222 tons of cargo. She was a wood burner, using up to 30 cords each day.

After leaving Brownsville the Arabia traveled down the Ohio and onto the Mississippi River, than to St. Louis where for the next 18 months would ply the waters of both rivers carrying cargo and passengers to many river towns.

Departing St. Louis the heavily loaded Arabia again headed up the Missouri River. After a short stop at the town of Kansas, (now Kansas City), she again started heading upriver. The Arabia never made another port-of-call. On September 5, 1856, less than one hour above Kansas City at Quindaro Bend, the steamboat Arabia meets her fate.

A large undetected walnut tree below the water level ripped through the Arabia’s hull smashing crates of cargo packed inside. Within second’s thousands of gallons of muddy Missouri River water was rushing inside flooding the boiler deck and cargo was gone, along with over 200 tons of cargo destined for frontier merchants. Fortunately no loss of life had occurred except for one Missouri mule who was found tied up and unable to escape.

From the beginning of time swift-moving bodies of water like the Missouri River changed course, depth would rise than fall, and the river would again move it’s banks to another location. In the beginning and for years after, the story of the steamboat Arabia was told and retold by locals in barber shops and bar rooms, until eventually the boat’s exact location became lost.

In 1987 the four man team of Bob, David and Greg Hawley and Jerry Mackey were searching for adventure and guided by an old river map showing the approximate location of the steamship Arabia, set out.

The hunt quickly took them to the farm of Norman Sortor whose land bordered the Missouri River on the Kansas side.

In the early 1860s, Norman’s grandfather Elisha Sortor purchased the property. From the beginning the story of the steamboat Arabia being on the property became part of the family’s folklore, as its story was told over and over. Norman, in his youth was told of the great ship being buried somewhere on the property. Would it ever be found?

An agreement was quickly struck between Norman Sortor, the Hawley’s and Mackey. Soon the attempt to locate and excavate the Arabia began.

Armed with the latest technology, a proton magnetometer, David Hawley began searching the Sorter farm. In only two hour’s the wreck was located, over one-half mile from the current river’s edge and 45 feet underground!

Eighteen months later, on November 7th 1988, after assembling all needed equipment including a 100-ton crane, the long awaited dig of the riverboat Arabia began.

As with any new venture problems can quickly develop. The Arabia lay in an old underground river channel below the water level and at the 20 foot level of the dig, water began flowing in. To extract the water so the dig could continue, 20 wells, each about 65 feet deep, were constructed around the hull of the wreck. Each well was made of steel casings and had heavy duty water pumps placed inside. Thousands of feet of steel and plastic pipe were then installed to remove and divert the water away from the excavation site. When working at there peak these pumps would remove as much as 20,000 gallons of water-per-minute, sending it back into the Missouri River, over a half mile away.

With the water problem solved the digging began in earnest. Finally on November 26th a load of dirt was lifted exposing the boat’s wooden beams and paddle wheel. One hundred and thirty two years after it’s sinking the steamboat Arabia once again saw the light of day.

Several days later on November 30th, the first of many artifacts would be found. It was a pair of Goodyear rubber shoes, patented in 1849. The crew was set to work throughout the winter when the water table was at its lowest and on December 5th the first wooden shipping barrel was lifted out of the cargo hold. When the mud-covered lid was removed a single china bowl emerged still packed in soft yellow packing straw. Before the day ended almost 200 pieces of elegant, unbroken dishware would be recovered.

And on it went; cases of eye glasses; ink wells; food bottles; medicines; spoons; bells; wrenches; guns; pocket knives; no two cases seemed to be exactly alike, all holding remains of the frontier era.

Working in shifts both day and night the recovery continued for four months until the entire cargo of the Arabia was removed. After removing the cargo heavy equipment hoisted the 25,000 pound boiler, paddle wheel structures, and finally the stern portion of the boat itself.

On Saturday evening, February 11th 1980 the excavation came to an end. The diesel generators and water pumps were turned off, workers, bulldozer, and cranes moved away from the site. Within hours, ground water returned filling in the now near empty grave of the Arabia.

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